Patti Smith: Just KidsI'm not much of a fan of either of the artists featured (Patti Smith and Robert Mappelthorpe), but the book is very compelling taking me into a new world and time that I was not really aware of. (***)

October 25, 2017

Tom Hanks had a mix and match upbringing in the Bay Area that included his “original parents” as he said getting divorced. He said he was kind of big deal because his parents got divorced at a time when only people named Zsa Zsa got divorced.

At some point during his youth, he realized that acting was not just something to goof off and have fun with but something to be studied. He talked about a class where they read a play, went to see it and wrote a paper on it and that was part of the transformation.

He said he thought one movie could be done over and over: That Thing You Do! He also talked about the inspiration being a song called Little Honda by the Hondells and how they got sick of singing that hit song. He kind of wanted the movie viewers to get tired of the song “That Thing You Do” in the movie.

My truth is I wish he would have played the full song every time because the camera work each time they did it and the setting of the story was different each time. I also binge listened to that song with my daughter when she was like 10 and we loved it.

He talked about how he writes pages and pages of backstory for characters when he does movie that go beyond the script. I didn’t even know actors did that. The idea is to create a past story for the context of the current character’s motivation.

This is probably really basic for most, but I didn’t know that each scene in a movie has a purpose: to move the story forward. He talked about how one director told him they need to find the “Red Dot” in the scene. (I couldn’t help but think of the Seinfeld Sweater episode or a few of my married Hindu friends)

He has a book of short stories and so many of them are founded either in history or in the lived experience of both discovering our tiny part of the universe and the related gigantic reality of our lives in that context. I really appreciated how he shared that he doesn’t feel drawn to the classic protagonist/hero narrative.

He told the story about how his Father In Law came to America which was a compelling 2 hour chat. When he mentioned how incredible the story was to his wife, his wife said basically I’ve never heard the story, what was it? It’s funny how we have people in our lives where there is tons of back story that we may not even be aware of.

He did a great physical imitation of writers who are confused and uncertain. About that time, he also touched on how a writer thinks a story will go one way but upon writing it, the story follows tributaries to the river down all kinds of other paths.

This is not an exact quote, but he sort of said “Hubris and celebrity are not qualifiers for leadership” or something like that as he reflected on politics. Not long after that he responded that he would not run for President. He said that the level of commitment and ideological certainty at a minimum don’t fit.

One of the best stories was when he shared about the scene in John Adams where Adams was the lawyer for the British Soldiers who shot into the mob. It was a substantial reframe of a historical event for him. It is a totally compelling scene from a series I’ve watched twice from beginning to end.

He brought up how when he watched movies he assumed everything was totally accurate. (he told a really funny side story about how he talks to people he portrays in movies saying he’ll do things they’ve never done, go places they’ve never been and his single desire is to play them truthfully!) He feels a responsibility to be as close to accurate as possible because he understands kids sometimes watch it.

One funny quote: “Politics is Hollywood for ugly people”

The quality he thinks is most important in work of almost any kind and I’m guessing life is perseverance. He talked about when the phone is not ringing with opportunities you have to keep fighting for your dream. I know it seems like a throwaway quote, but for some reason it felt real for him. He seems like a really hard worker.

He talked about the abuses of power in the industry and not surprisingly strongly called it out as wrong. He also asked the women in the audience to basically clap if they’ve been harassed or assaulted in the work place and it seemed like 80-90% of the women clapped.

Finally, three reflections on how he talked.

First, I’ve seen other actors/actresses talk and they tend to talk about acting at a level that is just not relatable. He takes on the same topics but does it understandably. It made it totally engaging.

Second, dude swears like a sailor at times. He dropped f-bombs like he was auditioning for a Scorsese mob flick.

Third, he’s funny, like really funny. I don’t know why but I was surprised he was that funny.

January 02, 2014

A string of random circumstances came together on NYE to send me a poignant, painful and powerful message in the form of the movie her. In short the plot is about a man (Joaquin Phoenix who is spectacular) who develops a loving relationship with an OS (Scarlett Johansson) which learns and feels into a feminine being.

I’m going through a really tough time with love and women. I haven’t said “I love you” to a woman since my ex-wife 10+ years ago. The script centers almost entirely around the pain, joy and journey of love.

Without spoiling things here are a few reflections:

If I say I love you to a woman, I’m all in. When I do I risk hurting another person if (or when…) I fall out of love. I worry about this more than getting hurt. So I either get into relationships where I know I won’t or just don’t say I love you. The movie has a SUPER powerful scene that points out the more I give love the bigger my capacity to love gets. I was in tears at that point because of what that means to my reticence to say I love you to a woman.

Many of my relationships are based on text and email. It’s a large part of how I feel connected. And it’s giving me a false feeling of fullness. I’m losing what it means to see each other’s reactions and be there for each other. There are inherent, simple limitations to it. One of them is pointed out in the VERY last scene of the movie.

When a woman starts to get close to me and have feelings for me I make it about me and my fears. Are you becoming attached to me? Do you want a commitment? And on and on. The movie knocked me back by showing me that when I go into self-preservation mode, I completely ignore the fact that another human being is sharing something deep and vulnerable.

And there’s SO much more I could share, which I’ll do in a heartbeat if you see it and want to get together to talk about it.

I was weeping during a number of points of the movie. The power of the use of the OS’ voice and Phoenix’s voice to transmit emotion is breathtaking.

While I have a feeling that it’s a movie that will either deeply move you or have you saying “meh”, go see it. Because taking the risk of “meh” is so small compared to the rich reward you will get if you are moved by it.

July 29, 2008

A friend of mine just tipped me to this hilarious bit of entertainment. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog stars Neil Patrick Harris as a developing evil-doer and a self-conscious single guy. Nathan Fillion plays his nemesis, Captain Hammer.

Dr. H is trying to gain acceptance to the Evil League of Evil and is tasked with doing...evil. The show is peppered with great lines (including at one point a newscaster signing off with "It's a good day to be homeless").

I saw NPH star in Rent in LA and he was terrific. In this bit of fun, he's also great. It's interesting how different it is. The songs in the show are well done.

I'll be surprised if this doesn't turn into some variety of a Broadway show, if it hasn't already. It's another example of the power of internet distribution. It clearly doesn't "fit" very well on TV so they just did it on their own, bravo!

July 20, 2008

I went to see Dark Knight last night and it was phenomenal. It's a Batman installment that stars Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the Joker.

It had plenty of the cool special effects and breathtaking action scenes. But the script was extraordinary. I thought the way that the writing explored the inner workings of the human condition was awesome. Often, I think, script serves as a filler between action in films like this and it's usually ok (like a porn movie to a certain extent). This was definitely an exception.

As for the actors, I had difficulty divorcing Christian Bale from Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, but that's ok, it sort of added to the experience.

Regardless, I URGE you to go see Dark Knight to literally drink in Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. The writing definitely helped, but his acting is other worldly. Frankly, he makes Jack Nicholson's Joker feel amateur.

I've always known that good scripts are the key to movies. And, I've often thought that good scripts can even overcome bad acting. But when good scripts meet great acting, it's explosive (like Kevin Spacey in American Beauty).

It's downright spooky that he's dead now but I couldn't help but think that he almost knew the end was near or perhaps he just lived his life that way, that's why he was so unbelievable. He poured himself into the role and it tasted great. He left my mouth WIDE OPEN during several scenes.

It's certainly not for kids but any adult should make the effort to check it out, it's a big screen experience unlike most others I've ever had.

June 25, 2008

I'm deeply moved by the talents and the skills of the people who create and bring us such beauty.

I feel connected to the fact that human beings can do anything.

The individuals who did what they did at Marshall are human beings like all of us. And when moved by a cause, it really feels like anything is possible.

In times of hyper adrenaline, we can do amazing things physically, things we didn't even know we had in us. I feel like that unknown power is also available in our spirit and it doesn't even needs stress to manifest.

When I watch a movie like We Are Marshall it's just so clear that ANY of us can do great things. I'll admit that when I watch it, there's a part of me that is hard on myself for not, in my mind, tapping into that capacity.

December 03, 2007

This weekend I saw Enchanted with my daughter and mom (a little 3 generation theatrical sensation for you!). It's the latest for kids movie released by Disney. It follows the path of a princess to be from an animated story who ends up falling into a live action movie set in New York City.

It was awesome!

It's really funny because Disney does a great job of making fun of itself. The lead actress in the movie (the princess to be) does a hilarious job playing out the typical personality of the Disney princesses (lots of songs, never-ending hope, smiles, love, etc.). Although I won't be surprised if it's the last time we see her in the movies, she kind of has one hit wonder written all over her. Matthew Marsden was also funny as Prince Edward.

The movie was made, in my experience, by Patrick Dempsey. Apparently he's the new hunk from a show called Grey's Anatomy as a character people call Dr. McDreamy, but for me he is forever etched in my memory as the pizza delivery boy for Senor Pizza in Can't Buy Me Love (a WAY underrated movie from the late '80's).

He was sweet, interesting, caring and funny when necessary. It was particularly touching for me because he's a single dad bringing up a 6 year old daughter.

The end was a little violent but it mimicked Sleeping Beauty's end to a certain extent.

I've seen a number of kids movies (Shrek III, Fred Clause) and a few adult movies (Departed) in the last few months and this one far outshines all of them.

Someday I will come up with a clever rating system. Until then if you have kids it's a must see. If you have a girlfriend or wife, it's a point scorer. If you're a single dude, great date movie.

And if you're really comfortable with yourself (particularly if you are a man) go see it by yourself, it's a ton of fun.

August 06, 2007

I saw Ratatouille this weekend and thought it was good, not great. The animation (similar to Shrek III) was, in the words of Dr. Evil....breathtaking. There were scenes in Ratatouille that showed Paris that I honestly couldn't tell whether it was actual footage of the city (which it may have been, I still don't know) or animation.

I liked the core message of the story. I took away that you should never judge the package in which genius may come because genius may come from anywhere. I just didn't find the story itself all that compelling.

It's sort of like the core message of Finding Nemo was about the uncertainty that a father faces when trying to raise a child and was great. The story wrapped around that was unbelievable.

An interesting note for me was that the voices in the movie were all virtual unknowns. It sort of reminds me of the early days of Disney when they did the same thing. Pixar, understandably, seems to be easing on the gas of the star power of its voices. After Cars which included Owen Wilson and Paul Newman, this film included a list of people I've never heard of, I suppose it makes more money for the studio!

It's also interesting to compare that to Shrek III which seems to be relying more and more on those big names while the story is getting less interesting.

The thing about the animation for me that was so stunning was that this movie was loaded with physical comedy and the animation made it very believable. The rat controlled Linguini, the young "chef" as a puppeteer and frankly it looked like he was stealing scenes from Pinocchio with his body flopping around. In addition, the scenes where the rat was running through sewers and the streets of Paris were spectacular.

I liked that the movie tried to spice in some stuff for adults (in particular, the food critic whose last name was Ego was brilliant) while still keeping the kids engaged. My bet is if you like cooking to some degree the movie was probably awesome!

Perhaps my expectations were too high (in fact I'm pretty sure they were). I love that Pixar has kept Brad Bird (who wrote and directed it) around. His movie Iron Giant was tremendous. He also was part of the early Simpsons years. Hopefully the next one (which apparently is about a robot who becomes all that he wants to be) will be cool.

Then again, a good outing by Pixar (sorry I just can't quite bring myself to call them Disney) is better than most any outing by almost all the other studios so keep them coming!

July 31, 2007

I've been thinking about the way our culture looks to a foreigner or to some random human alien who would land on our planet who is looking for direction on what this "America" is all about. Granted there are tons of examples of the look and feel of the day but i was wondering what movies transcend that.

The first two that came to mind for me (a bit darkly....) were The Ice Storm or Ordinary People they do both deal with some of the ups of America and most certainly deal with the fact that many of us are repressed and it wells up inside of us and comes out in rather dark, volatile ways.